Fans Stream Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre’ to Help Him Pay $2.4M in Back Taxes to IRS

Nelly fans want to help him pay his back taxes to the IRS and are generating revenue for the rapper by streaming his 2002 smash “Hot in Herre.”

The move was suggested by Spin writer Brian Joseph who covered Nelly’s tax issues with a solution in mind. Reports from earlier this week said that the St. Louis rapper owed $2,412,283 to the IRS in unpaid taxes. He also owes $149,511 in state taxes. To cover these losses, fans would have to stream Nelly’s song 287,176,547 times. The plan assumes that Nelly collects $0.0084 per stream and receives 100 percent of the payout for them. Since the song was made close to the beginning of his career, it’s safe to assume that Nelly might only get a portion of that money. Still, fans are going all out and posting interesting memes about it. It has also become one of the most talked about topics on social media.

“Hot in Herre” is one of Nelly’s biggest records to date and was featured on his sophomore album “Nellyville.” It was his first song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was produced by the Neptunes who were red hot at that point in time. It even helped Nelly win a Grammy for Best Male Rap Solo Performance.